Don't Make Promises You Can't Keep
by Avery Mac
Summary: “Just come home to me.” Laura begged. “I promise.” Evan whispered back. What’s that saying again? Don’t make promises you can’t keep?


**Disclaimer: **Nope. Stargate Atlantis doesn't belong to me. If it did, I wouldn't have such a crappy guitar.

**Summary: **"Just come home to me." Laura begged. "I promise." Evan whispered back. What's that saying again? Don't make promises you can't keep?

**Spoilers/Warnings: **Spoilers for Enemy At The Gate, but nothing else I'm aware of.

**Don't Make Promises You Can't Keep.**

Evan downed the last of his coffee, and picked his car keys up from the worn wood table. God knows how it was worn, after only three years in the house.

"You leaving already?" Laura called from her lounging position on their squishy brown leather couch.

"Yeah, I'm late. Well, late-ish." Evan replied apologetically, coming over to give his wife a goodbye kiss.

Laura let her fingers linger on Evan's tanned cheekbones for a few seconds after they broke apart. "How long are you gone for again?"

"Just a few days." Evan answered, his own hand holding tightly onto Laura's.

"Oh!" Laura gasped suddenly.

"What? What's wrong?" Evan asked worriedly, almost vaulting over the couch.

"Squirt kicked." Laura grinned, the hand that wasn't holding Evan's resting against her gently swelled stomach.

"Really?" Evan's grin reminded Laura of when her little sister used to go into a candy store- utter delight.

Laura nodded, and pressed Evan's hand to her stomach, and they waited for the next kick to come, if it was going to come at all.

Sure enough, a few minutes later the baby kicked again.

"Squirt's gonna be a football player." Evan grinned. They had taken to calling their unborn child Squirt since they didn't know if it was a boy or girl, and after two months of bickering, a neutral nickname was chosen.

The pair would probably still call the kid squirt when they were born.

"Nah, Squirt'll be a dancer, like me." Laura grinned back, poking out her tongue.

Evan laughed, and glanced a5tt the clock above the fireplace.

"Crap. I gotta get going Laur, or I'll actually be very late." He said, pressing a kiss to Laura's forehead. "See you later."

"Ev?" Laura said as he turned to go. "Just, just come home to me." She begged.

"I promise." Evan whispered, blowing her a kiss before bolting for the door, and his jeep.

///

Evan cursed as he stumbled slightly, running for the cover of the trees. What was supposed to be a routine mission had gone wrong almost from the moment he and his team had stepped through the 'gate.

The natives had gotten pissed with them for god knows what reason, the team had gotten split up, and it was pitch black.

Evan continued to creep through the trees, to the clearing where the stargate was located. If he was right, it was about three klicks away at the most.

_Home in time for dinner. _The air force officer thought to himself, scanning the shadowy area in front of them.

No night vision goggles, of course. Murphy's law.

Evan whirled around as he heard a branch crunch, but the shot hit him before he could even register the crack of a shotgun.

The bullet lodged in his chest, and Evan hit the ground in seconds, bleeding.

The shooter must have taken him to be dead, because the next shot he was expecting never came.

Who knew how long he lay there, bleeding, but the next thing he remembered was the familiar voice of Lieutenant Lola Sanchez keeping him awake as she pressed bandages to the wound.

He recognised a few English curse words, before the Lieutenant lapsed back into her native Spanish and began ranting rapidly under her breath.

"Hold on sir." Lola said, returning to English. "Captain Harper, and Sergeant Willis are on their way, and we'll get you back to the SGC and patched up in no time."

Evan couldn't speak. The ability to talk seemed to have left him, and whether it was from shock, or injury Evan didn't know.

Time passed in a blur, and suddenly Evan found himself being lifted onto a makeshift stretcher, hastily put together, and barely stable.

"Just, hold on sir. Just a few more minutes." Lola's voice once again made it's way to Evan's ears. "We'll get you back to your wife, and your little Squirt."

Evan had told his team about Squirt, of course. They were close knit, and had worked together since Evan transferred back to the SGC when Atlantis arrived back on Earth.

Laura stayed at Atlantis, and it meant they were no longer in the direct chain of command, so them dating wasn't a problem anymore.

Laura Cadman was the only girl Evan had ever broke the frats regs for, and the only girl he'd ever risk his career for.

"Y'know sir, I think that Squirts a good name. Very versatile and everything. Only comes second to Lola." Lola babbled. "Keep hanging in there sir, keeping hanging in. You're gonna be alright. You're gonna be alright, especially if I have anything to do with it."

"L-Laura?" Evan gurgled, blood running down his chin.

"Yeah, she's your girl sir." It was Captain Willis who spoke this time. "And you're gonna hang in there for a few more minutes so we can get you back to Dr Lam and her magic hands, so you can get back to Laura."

"Dial the 'gate Sergeant! Tell 'em we got a med emergency on our hands." The Captain ordered as they reached the stargate.

Lola began to chatter encouragingly again, guarding the area with an eagle eye. "Hold on now sir. we're almost home. Just hold on sir.."

The voices began to fade into the distance, and the world slowly turned black, the screams, the flashes, the pain fading to nothingness…

///

As soon as Colonel Sheppard, and Captain Willis arrived on her doorstep, in full dress uniform, Laura knew the news wasn't going to be good.

"Laura?" John said as she opened the door, her right arm resting on her swelled belly. "God Laura, I'm sorry. Ev-Major Lorne was killed in action this morning."

Laura stared at her commanding officer- well, her commanding officer when he wasn't on maternity leave- in shock.

"What?"

"Evan's been killed in action ma'am. I'm so sorry." Captain Willis said, his own eyes tinged red, and watery.

"Oh god." Laura said, catching onto the doorframe to steady herself. "Oh god."

John dropped his military act then, and enveloped his friend in a tight hug.

"I'm so sorry Laura." he said again, leading her to the kitchen he knew so well, from nights of parties hosted, and dinners cooked by the happy couple.

Laura sat in shock, the tears refusing to come.

"I need to organise the funeral, and I need to tell-" Laura began, trying to stand. "Oh god. I have to tell his mom."

Her voice was cracking, and John sat her down gently.

"Laura, I'll help you out with the funeral. it's a military one after all, I can handle it. I'll get Teyla beamed here to meet you, and well go to San Francisco to tell Evan's family, okay?"

Laura nodded, wringing her hands, her face a knot of grief.

Colonel Sheppard whipped out his cell phone, garbled into it, and minutes later Teyla was standing her the kitchen, her arms around Laura in a tight embrace.

Another call, and Laura was standing in a alley near the family home of the Lorne's.

"Do you wish us to stay with you?" Teyla inquired, still holding Laura, afraid if she let go, the woman would simply collapse.

Laura shook her head violently. "I, I need to d-do this alone."

John and Teyla nodded.

"Call us when you're ready to be beamed back." John said, squeezing Laura's shoulder tightly before watching her walk up the steps with shaky footsteps.

She was holding it together remarkably well.

It took every bit of strength left in Laura to raise her hand, and push the doorbell.

The faint ding had barley passed when Evan's mother Izzie Lorne opened the door, the ever present smile on her face.

The smile however dropped from the face that was so like Evan's when she saw the state of Laura.

"What's happened?"

"E-Evan was killed in a-a-action." Laura stuttered as her mother in law led her inside.

Izzie immediately burst into tears. "Evan's gone? My baby boy is gone?"

Laura nodded, her feet suddenly giving away. She didn't move from the chair she had somehow managed to land in, the tears she had been holding back for the past half hour beginning to flow freely.

Izzie laid one hand on her shoulder, and somehow managed to dial Evan's sister Alison.

Laura paid no attention to what happened next. She simply sobbed, and sobbed until she had no more tears to shed.

Then, she sobbed some more. Her Evan, her flyboy, her soul mate was _dead._

///

The funeral was held four days after Evan's death, and it was held on a beautiful sunny day. A day Laura should be spending with Evan, out their garden, on a pier on Atlantis or if they could wangle it, a beam to a sandy beach someplace hot.

It was the perfectly military funeral. John, and Colonel Carter had seen to that. The church was packed to the rafters, various personnel form Atlantis, the SGC and Evan's friends from outside the military, from basic training, and previous postings made the huge guard of honour.

Evan's brother in law, his best friend Wayne, Lieutenant Sanchez, Dr Parrish, and tow other people Laura couldn't remember carried the coffin.

Alison had found her a dress to wear, but Laura couldn't have cared less if it was a bin bag or not.

She sat through the entire funeral, tears running down her face, and one hand protectively resting on Squirt, who Evan would never meet.

Now, they were standing in the graveyard. Evan was buried, and people were slowly trickling from the graveyard, leaving Izzie, Alison, Laura and Alison's family by the grave.

Laura looked at the freshly covered grave, her heart aching.

"Oh Ev." She sighed. "Didn't your mom ever tell you not to make promises you can't keep?"

///

_Four Years later.._

"Momma?" Evanna Lorne said quietly as she and her mother Laura lay on the grass, staring at the stars.

They were at a party, a reunion of sorts for personnel form Atlantis. Jennifer and Rodney were hosting seeing as they had the biggest back garden, and everyone was up for a barbeque since it was a warm summer's evening.

Soon after the toast for 'absent friends' Laura and her beautiful little girl had headed to the edge of the party-goers to look at the stars.

Evanna loved the stars.

"Yeah Squirt?" Laura said. Squirt had stuck, after all.

"Is Daddy up there?" Evanna asked, craning her little neck to look at a constellation Laura and Dusty, her godmother had so fondly named the Rodney.

Rodney had argued it look like a dancing goat, and the women had answered with a simple 'that's the point'.

"Sorry Squirt?"

"Is Daddy up there?" Evanna repeated her question. "Up in th' stars?"

Laura had to smile. Evanna knew nothing of the Stargate Program, or of her fathers love for flying space ships in the starry expanse that was space, but she still hit the nail right on the head.

"Yeah Squirt, that's exactly where he is." Laura nodded. "He's up in the stars, looking down and protecting you."

"Really?" Evanna said, her little blue eyes that mirrored Evan's locked on the dark sky.

"Really." Laura nodded. "And he's always going to protect you, from up there."

"Promise?"

Laura hesitated. Promises hadn't gotten Evan home.

"I don't know Squirt, but he'll do his best." Laura said finally. "He'll always do his absolute best to protect you, no matter what."

_He'll do his best to protect us. _Laura added silently, and she knew she was right.

Evan was out there, somewhere looking over his family, a silent promise he had made the day he married Laura, and the day she found of she was pregnant with Squirt.

And that was a promise he could keep.

**FIN.**

**Authors Note: **What do you think? I'm not entirely happy with the ending, but I hope you like it! I've been working on it a while, so I'd love to hear what you think. Reviews are love, flames will be used to roast marshmallows.


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